Cooking fish, advice please

Cabbie21

My mother used to fry cod for her and Dad, but for me and my sister she cooked plaice on a plate over the pan of potatoes, ie steamed in milk with a knob of butter and covered with the pan lid.

That's exactly how my mother cooked plaice for us, then she used the milk to make parsley sauce.

Ooh, kedgeree, haven't made one for a long time!

We cook salmon, as our daughters will typically be round on Friday. Baked greaseproof paper wrapped in foil, lemon, white wine, dill.

Lovely with Asparagus, roasted potatoes, green salad.

I usually squeeze lemon juice over it or sometimes just a couple of slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley but have not tried white wine!
It's usually in the glass 😀

Fennel is aniseedy, isn't it? I like most things but not aniseed.
I did grow it years ago(others like it) but it seeded itself everywhere.

I do the same as Moth62 and it’s perfect every time. Good luck and enjoy it.

Dry fish with kitchen roll,beat a couple of eggs pass fish through the beaten eggs, coat both sides with breadcrumbs ( I make my own) pan fry in a little oil enough to cover bottom of frying pan, medium heat turn after about 3/4 mins. That's it.. I use left over eggto make an omlette and have with my fish. Having that tonight. Enjoy.

One nice way is to make a tomato sauce with onion/garlic/ herbs and poach white fish like haddock or cod in it gently until cooked. (Spain) But as someone said already the plaice is too delicate for that.

I am lazy; all fish goes into a foil wrap and in the oven. Less smells, no pan to clean.

You can add spices or herbs, but I like the taste of my fish as is.

I do all my fish in my air fryer now days, wrap in foil with a dab of butter and herb, depending on the fish, or a spray of olive oil and a herb, if it’s a thin fish roughly 10 mins, fatter such as salmon roughly 15 mins.

Why do people talk about fish smelling? fresh fish should not smell and unless you are frying it, it shouldn't smell when cooking either. What odour it does give off is a lit less invasive and long lasting than meat based dishes.

I cook a lot of my fish in the oven, with some kind of liquid to keep it moist (milk, sherry, white wine - depending on the recipe), and sometimes add a knob of butter too. Thinner pieces, such as plaice, filleted sea bass, skate, etc, don’t take long to cook at all in the oven, about 15 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye as they can quickly dry out. I set my temperature at 180 degrees C, slightly less if I use the fan oven feature.

I’m guessing your haddock is smoked haddock? I would cook that on the stove top in a little milk.

I very rarely fry fish.

I haven’t cooked thinner fillets of fish in the air fryer, but I have successfully cooked salmon steaks and cod steaks in mine - again adding a little liquid to keep them moist. They come out very tender and moist.

I realise I’m posting this a few days after you posted for advice Cillafan, so you will have cooked your fish by now. I hope you found the advice of other posters helpful, and enjoyed your fish 😁.

Mojack26

Dry fish with kitchen roll,beat a couple of eggs pass fish through the beaten eggs, coat both sides with breadcrumbs ( I make my own) pan fry in a little oil enough to cover bottom of frying pan, medium heat turn after about 3/4 mins. That's it.. I use left over eggto make an omlette and have with my fish. Having that tonight. Enjoy.

when fish was much cheaper, in the long distant past, I used what we knew as the 'jewish' method of frying fish (this in the days when all others were deep fried).

So, much as Mojack describes, but instead of breadcrumbs we used fine matzo meal. Oil in pan needs to be very hot, but jut enough to line bottom of heavy duty frying pan (back in the past kept one just for fish). Do not forget to turn fish over, this method cooks quickly and is delicious AND, can be eaten the following day when cold, with a lovely salad.

Would fry up a great pile of fish this way, and any egg and meal left over at end were mixed together and fried in little patties.

Have not done this for many a long year now.

Id just pan fry it in a bit of butter for a few mins each side with some salt, pepper and lemon.

I have a microwave poaching gadget. In this I can put one or two pieces of fresh salmon, a small amount of water. Lid on and four sides all sealed. In my 900w microwave this just needs two minutes to have this salmon fully cooked (poached).
Lovely and healthy with salad.